Charleston Southern wins Big South title

Charleston Southern won its sixth Big South Women’s Championship title Wednesday.

The Buccaneers, No. 151 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings, closed with a tournament-best 291 at The Patriot Golf Club in Ninety-Six, S.C., and set a conference championship scoring record with their 17-over 881 total. Charleston Southern finished 23 shots ahead of No. 53 Coastal Carolina (300). No. 161 Winthrop (317) was third at 925 and No. 173 Radford (316) was fourth.

Bucs senior Olivia Jordan-Higgins shot rounds of 70-75-70 to win the individual title and set a Big South Championship record with a 1-under 215 total. She had finished runner up at the conference tournament in 2008 and 2009.

Senior Katrin Rumpf (70) was third at 220 and freshman Katelyn Bensch (76) tied for sixth.

“I could not be prouder of our team and what they have accomplished,” Charleston Southern coach Kory Thompson said. “To play their best round of the tournament with the pressure on and the conditions at their toughest says a lot about the character of this team.”

With the victory, Charleston Southern clinches a birth in NCAA regional play, which begins May 6.

– Information from Charleston Southern athletics was used in this report